LIS Social Science Advisory Group Meeting, December 11, 2012
Attending: Bert Johnson (co-convenor), Kemi Fuentes-George, David Stoll, Shel Sax, Joe Antonioli, Richard Jenkins, Carrie Macfarlane, Brenda Ellis (co-convenor/notes)
Topics:
- LIS Liaison Program Effectiveness
- Curricular Technology Support
- Information Desk Replacement
LIS Liaison Program Effectiveness
As leader of the LIS Liaison group, Carrie Macfarlane explained that LIS is currently evaluating the program over multiple years, with this year focusing on communication. LIS will review information already available to us (past surveys, etc.) but welcomed any feedback from the group.
Faculty in attendance noted that most of their communications with LIS deal with technology or with reserves, (Kellam was praised highly). No complaints about course support; one professor used a blog and middfiles for the first time and found that both worked fine. Another didn’t know much about middfiles and is interested because uploading files to Moodle is time-consuming. One professor doesn’t have many questions himself but often sends his students in for help.
Concerns: Faculty expressed concern re: staffing shortages at the helpdesk and frustration with the level of service at the walk-in help desk. Specifics have been shared with the appropriate areas of LIS.
Curricular Technology Support
Joe Antonioli, Manager of Web & Interactive Digital Media Technologies, shared usage statistics for the current semester from the Course Hub, which has been in use since Fall 2011.
Fall 2012 Overall:
- 66% (2/3) of classes on the course hub have had something added to them (beyond the standard setup)
- 83% of instructors have added something to the course hub
Usage By type of resource:
- E-res: 25% of instructors (65% of students)
- Link Resource (url link to a web-based resource): 14% of instructors (35% of students)
- Middfiles Class folder: 48% of instructors (86% of students)
- Moodle: 30% of instructors (65% of students)
- WordPress: 9% of instructors (21% of students)
- Syllabus Upload: 30% of instructors (69% of students)
- Syllabus Text: 2% of instructors (6% of students)
- RSS feed: 1% of instructors (2% o students)
Comments:
Kemi uses Moodle. He noted that uploading files to Moodle is a pain (too many steps). Joe announced that we are upgrading to Moodle 2 in a month and that will make file uploads easier.
Bert uses a google.com site and E-res for copyrighted readings and classes folder for datasets. He reported that he can’t add a Twitter RSS feed (as opposed to a link to twitter) to the hub. Joe will investigate.
David uses the classes folder (which now has links from the Hub). Easy to drop a syllabus and other docs there.
Information Desk replacement
Brenda explained that LIS was looking for suggestions for replacing the round desk in the front of the library (that currently has flyers, staplers, fax, etc.) . The desk is no longer staffed and other uses for this prominent space may make more sense. Possibilities that have been suggested include an electronic kiosk, a tree, artwork, or a seating area. David expressed a strong aversion to an electronic kiosk – no more TV’s and visual pollution. He’d rather see a tree or seating area. Kemi was neutral. Bert preferred rotating artwork.